Mentors & Mash: Designing Learning with Social Software

Mentors & Mash:Designing Learning with Social Software Anne Bartlett-Bragg May, 2007

Program Participants Parameters Generation Y Designing Philosophies Social Software Mash-up Partnerships The Program • AusIndustry SBEP program • Young women entrepreneurs • National • Structured business skills • Mentoring sessions • Peer group collaboration • 6 months duration • 9 programs January 2007 – March 2008

Program Participants Parameters Generation Y Designing Philosophies Social Software Mash-up Partnerships The Mentorees • Women - under 35 (or not) • Been in business for 6 months - 2 years • Business is located in Australia

Program Participants Parameters Generation Y Designing Philosophies Social Software Mash-up Partnerships The Mentors • Women or men • Owned or operated a business in Australia for 5 years • Support 5 mentorees • Can be located nationally or globally

Program Participants Parameters Generation Y Designing Philosophies Social Software Mash-up Partnerships Mentoring Philosophy Mentoras: • Role model - wise counsel or advice based on their experiences in similar situations • Guiding - persuading and coaching to apply suggestions • Collaborating - brainstorming • Empathetic listening and clarification • Sounding board • Networking of mentorees/mentors

Program Participants Parameters Generation Y Designing Philosophies Social Software Mash-up Partnerships Parameters Not tied to specific locations

Program Participants Parameters Generation Y Designing Philosophies Social Software Mash-up Partnerships Parameters Dispersed participants:How do we bring them to us?

Program Participants Parameters Generation Y Designing Philosophies Social Software Mash-up Partnerships Parameters Connectivity & access Ease of use – must be seamless Where technology is the enabler – not the focus!!

Program Participants Parameters Generation Y Designing Philosophies Social Software Mash-up Partnerships Parameters Digital literacy

Program Participants Parameters Generation Y Designing Philosophies Social Software Mash-up Partnerships Generation Y: Who are they? • Baby Boomers: 1940s - 1960 • Gen X: 1960 - 1980 • Gen Y: 1970 - 1990 • (Millennials): 1982 - 2000 • Net Gen: 1994 - 2000

Program Participants Parameters Generation Y Designing Philosophies Social Software Mash-up Partnerships Generation Y: Who are they? Digitally fluent Communicate with anyone, anywhere, anytime High self-esteem Work hard but guard personal time Want immediate results Success oriented Like mentoring Hate criticism Like collaboration

Program Participants Parameters Generation Y Designing Philosophies Social Software Mash-up Partnerships Designing Learning for the Ys • Pragmatic • Real • Fun (their sort - not mine!) • Engaging • Short, sharp • User generated • Rewarded

Program Participants Parameters Generation Y Designing Philosophies Social Software Mash-up Partnerships Educational Philosophy People primarily think, learn, and problem solve through their experiences. James Paul Gee, 2006

Program Participants Parameters Generation Y Designing Philosophies Social Software Mash-up Partnerships Educational Philosophy Content must be: • Pragmatic • Practical • Applicable • Transferable • Adaptable Participants will be: • Creating • Publishing • Distributing NOT just consuming information

Program Participants Parameters Generation Y Designing Philosophies Social Software Mash-up Partnerships Educational Philosophy Social Learning Theories: Learning is • social • contextual but situated • individual • observation, practice & feedback • Learning from the interpreted experience and explanations of other people, including both peers and more expert people

Program Participants Parameters Generation Y Designing Philosophies Social Software Mash-up Partnerships Which pathway…??? • Synchronous sessions – webinars? • Collaboration – wikis? • File repository – databases? • Group communication – forums? • Mentoring spaces - ?? • Small group spaces - ?? • Individual spaces – weblogs?

Program Participants Parameters Generation Y Designing Philosophies Social Software Mash-up Partnerships Social Software Subscribe Create Flickr Re-create Collaborate & Share RSS Publish Read Bookmarking Wikis Blogs

Program Participants Parameters Generation Y Designing Philosophies Social Software Mash-up Partnerships Mash-up A mashup is a website or application that combines content from more than one source into an integrated experience.

Program Participants Parameters Generation Y Designing Philosophies Social Software Mash-up Partnerships Personal Spaces

Program Participants Parameters Generation Y Designing Philosophies Social Software Mash-up Partnerships Pod spaces

Program Participants Parameters Generation Y Designing Philosophies Social Software Mash-up Partnerships Program Spaces

Program Participants Parameters Generation Y Designing Philosophies Social Software Mash-up Partnerships Partnerships

Program Participants Parameters Generation Y Designing Philosophies Social Software Mash-up Partnerships Mentoring before mash?

Program Participants Parameters Generation Y Designing Philosophies Social Software Mash-up Partnerships Mentoring with mash… A fast track to success….. ABN MentorNet http://www.abn.org.au

Mentors & Mash: Designing Learning with Social Software